


In the End, It's Gonna Be Us

by sunnydalehart



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017), Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers Megaforce, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: F/F, M/M, other rangers are mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:07:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnydalehart/pseuds/sunnydalehart
Summary: With the threat of Rita approaching and the Power Coins still lying dormant beneath the Earth, the Morphin' Grid calls upon a handful of previous Rangers to keep the Zeo Crystal safe. But being pulled through time, space, and across dimensions means adjusting to their new "team" isn't as easy as they had hoped.To make things even more complicated, Zordon and Alpha 5 insist that they "bond" with the kids who are supposed to be the next set of Rangers. The only problem is, these "teenagers with attitude" have a little more attitude than they're prepared to deal with.[That's a lie; it's not the only problem.]





	In the End, It's Gonna Be Us

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is basically like an alternate version of the 2017 movie where it follows the same general plot, but now there's show rangers and it's gayer. Idk what I'm doing, but I thought it'd be fun to try out so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Side note: the Power Rangers universe(s) can be confusing as hell, and the timelines make it even more ???  
> But the first part here should be the most informative/dense it's gonna get and that's only bc I got a little carried away with the set up
> 
> there's very minimal comic references and hyperforce is here for a hot second, but you don't need to know anything abt either of those to read this

All Lauren does is _blink_ and she goes from preparing to train, to standing on a platform in the middle of a dimly lit room. It’s disorienting, and with its size and odd structure “room” might not be the best description, but she stays calm enough to really take stock of her surroundings. The galaxy-like essence in the center of the room is giving off a soft glow, and there’s a low humming and occasional ripple through the shifting material that lines the wall behind her.

The best way she can describe the place is _dormant_ . She doesn’t know _where_ exactly she is, and there isn’t much solid information she can retain from just looking, but it’s giving off an almost _living_ aura.

In the back of her mind she knows that this isn’t another villain. That it has to do with being a Ranger, but in the sense that she’s _meant_ to be here.

She’s trusting that answers will come in their own time.

There’s a dull flash from the other side of the room and a person appears on one of the other platforms—it looks like there are a few that surround the very center; maybe five. The blonde girl stumbles for a moment, grabbing at the air before she catches herself. She’s in some sort of wetsuit, still half soaked like she just walked out of the water, and she’s looking around the area with much more confusion than Lauren had been.

“A little warning would be nice next time!” she calls out, and then her eyes settle on Lauren. The girl opens her mouth to say something else, but is interrupted by a flash from another platform.

Another girl, this time with a very… nineties inspired choice in wardrobe. She wobbles a bit while trying to regain her balance. Says, “ _Whoa_ …” and then spins in a slow circle to check out the entire room.

She stops, glancing at the other two as she asks, “Do either of you know what’s going on? Where are we?”

The blonde in blue shakes her head, gesturing down at herself. “I literally got pulled from walking out of the ocean. I have no clue.”

“But why—?”

Another flash. The fourth girl to appear is holding a camera up to her face, and stumbles a bit like she was attempting to take a step forward but couldn’t. She slowly lowers the camera down, looking around the room with a very confused look on her face. “What…?”

“We don’t know anything yet,” the third girl says, shaking her head.

Flash. The next person barely reacts to the sudden teleportation, an almost completely unfazed expression as she glances side to side.

“Oh. This is… strange.” The girl--her pure white hair contrasting with an all black attire--pauses, bringing her wrist up to her face as she proceeds to speak into (what must be) some sort of device. “Alpha 55, there seems to have been a malfunction. I’m unsure of where or when I am, but I’m certain I’m not supposed to be here.”

Another much more frantic voice responds from the device. “Oh, Vesper, I’m so sorry! I assumed our ship was outside of this Grid’s dimensional reach! I’ll pull you back right away!”

There’s another flash, only this time the girl on the platform disappears.

“Whoa, can we do that too?” The girl in blue asks, looking down at her feet as she hops in place. She only looks _a little_ disappointed when nothing happens.

The third girl whispers mostly to herself, “Alpha _fifty_ -five?”

Over the same platform is a quick and sudden spark, and another person falls in its place. She seems much more caught off guard because she ends up landing on her ass, nearly tumbling _off_ of her designated slab. But she, thankfully, somehow manages to stay in place. She’s also wearing mostly black, but there are a few yellow accents here and there.

“ _Ow_! What the fuck…?” The girl slowly pulls herself up to stand, looking right at the other four. She doesn’t even attempt to scan the rest of the area. “What the hell is going on?”

“Hey!” The third girl calls out instead of answering the question. “Is someone here?”

“Oh yes! Welcome!” A voice rings out, high pitched and a bit robotic. Even with all of them looking around, none of them seem to see any source.

“Who are you?” the same girl asks.

The one in blue grabs onto her platform to crouch down and scan the area at a better angle. “ _Where_ are you?”

A strange looking little robot hobbles into view--though they didn’t catch exactly _where_ it came from. Even as it continues to speak, it’s moving around them in a circle, not standing still for more than a couple of seconds at a time. “Hello Rangers!”

“Rangers?” The newest person says, furrowing her eyebrows.

The one with the camera nods. “It does look like we’re color coded.”

“No, I know _I’m_ a Ranger. But I don’t know these… wait, I do know you.” The girl pauses when she sees the blonde in blue.

“Oh, this is so exciting. Lauren as the leader of course… and then Tori, yes… Our yellow is Aisha, okay…” There’s a pause. “Our yellow is _Aisha Campbell_! Wow… And Emma as our pink, that’s wonderful. Our black ranger is… Oh, Kira. Hm, okay, that’s interesting…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The robot continues on like nothing happened. “And you’re all girls. An all female team, that’s so fun! And new!”

“Okay, that’s cool and all. You know our names. But we’d like some answers too.”

“Just a moment and we will explain everything,” the robot says. “Please be patient.”

Everyone on the platforms takes that time to glance at each other, as if they’re all trying to have a silent conversation with only their facial expressions.

But their attention gets diverted when another flash, this one much duller than the ones before, comes from another area. A sixth platform that none of them had noticed before. With a faint _thud_ , another person lands in that space, teetering a bit before finally standing stable. “What the actual hell--”

“Gia?”

“Em?” The new blonde--Gia--turns to camera girl, relief covering her face. “Oh thank g--”

As both of them attempt to leave, presumably to get to each other, neither can get off of their platforms. It’s as if an invisible shield is preventing them from moving. And, knowing that that’s a possibility, it’s probably how that one girl--Kira--didn’t completely fall off of her platform.

“Why the hell can’t I get off of this thing?”

“You need to stay in place for safety reasons,” the robot calls out. “Until the Grid is completely done with transporting, you’ll need to stay where you’re standing. Please.”

The girl with the camera--Lauren’s pretty sure Alpha had called her Emma--nods, but the other doesn’t seem as calm or patient with the situation.

“Who the hell are you? _Where_ the hell are you?”

“That’s exactly what we were trying to ask,” Tori says.

The robot waves a little hand in the air, moving around to be in view for the new girl. “Down here.”

“Whoa,” she says, confused. “This thing is like… Tensou’s cousin.”

“Actually, you’re not that wrong.” The robot pauses for dramatic effect. “I’m Alpha 5!”

The third girl--Aisha--holds her hands up. “Wait. I knew an Alpha 5, but he’s… How is there more than one of you?”

Alpha shrugs. “There are a great number of alternate dimensions and time streams. Aisha, you and your Alpha 5 are from a completely different dimension _and_ time period, so I can understand how confusing this must be for you.”

“Confusing is one word for it…”

“Seriously?” Tori suddenly says. “Aw, I hate other dimensions.”

Alpha 5 moves on from that, quickly gesturing up at the giant wall behind them. “And this is Zordon!”

They all look in the indicated direction, but it doesn’t seem to be anything other than an oddly textured--and maybe electronic--wall.

“This happens sometimes. Because the coins aren’t active, so the connection is… Anyway. _Zordon!_ ”

There’s an echoing boom throughout the room as what looks like a face emerges from the wall.

It happens so suddenly, and it makes more noise than they had been expecting, that it makes all of them jump or brace themselves on their platforms.

The wall is all still the same material--different areas rippling just as they had before. And the face--Zordon--is moving, speaking, looking down and moving around the sides of the room to get a good look at the six of them.

“Rangers.” He says it as though it’s just to acknowledge their presence, and then he promptly turns his attention away from them. “Alpha, with the Grid being so active today, my connection is… more unpredictable than usual. You may need to take the lead with explaining the circumstances with them.”

“Oh! Okay. Sure, I can do that!”

“My apologies, Rangers,” he adds. “My presence may not be as consistent as I’d like it to be today.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think we mind all that much…” Kira says, turning to the others. “Are none of you fazed by this?”

Gia shakes her head, arms crossed as she nods towards Emma. “We’re used to taking orders from a talking wall.”

“And I knew a Zordon too,” Aisha adds. “But this is on a whole other level of weird. You’re Zordon, but you’re _not_. And I know Alpha said it was dimensional stuff, but… why did you bring us here in the first place?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll explain everything,” Alpha says. “Look at the matrix in the center of the room—what you see there is the Zeo Crystal. In this universe, every planet that has life has a piece of the crystal inside it. 65 million years ago Zordon’s team died defending the crystal here in what is now Angel Grove. Now the Power Coins should’ve chosen the next team of Rangers, but… the timeline is not moving as predicted. A threat to the crystal is growing near and we can’t afford to wait and chance the new Rangers never finding the Coins, because life on Earth would be destroyed. And you all should be experienced with your powers, so this should be a piece of cake!”

“Wait, I’m still confused,” Kira says, shaking her head.

“The Morphin’ Grid needed to choose from previous lines of Power Rangers to construct a new temporary team. One of each color that corresponds with what's on your platforms. Right now this planet is basically helpless, so we needed strong and capable warriors to preserve life here. According to the Grid, _you_ are the answer to our problem!”

“But… this isn’t my color,” Kira says, looking up from her platform. “I’m yellow. Why am I here?”

“Wait, I’m yellow too. Why am I—” Gia ducks down to double check her own color. “You put me on _green_?”

Aisha leans forward, holding a hand up a bit. “Well hold on. I’m yellow too, and that _is_ the color I’m standing on. There can’t be three of us.”

“Why does _she_ get to be the real yellow?”

“Within your particular dimension, if we were to say Aisha was the second ever Yellow Ranger,” Alpha says. “That would make Kira the eleventh. And Gia… you would be the eighteenth.”

Gia pauses before crossing her arms again. “Fine. It’s hard to argue with that.”

“But why am I on _black_?” Kira asks.

“Half of your wardrobe is black; you really think it’s that much of a stretch?”

Kira raises her eyebrows at the other girl. “You’re one to talk. You literally only have _one_ article of clothing that isn’t black. That’s way more than what I’ve got on.”

“Hey, if we could switch colors, I’d be all for it.”

There’s a flash of light, similar to what occurred when someone teleported in or out of the room, but nothing too noticeable happens. It’s just that the faint glow emanating from the Green and Black platforms switched colors.

“Whoa, what the fuck?”

“Thanks…?”

Alpha glances between the two of them and then says, “To answer your question… I don’t have an answer. There are many technicalities with the different dimensions and universes. It looks like the Grid was purposely trying to construct an all female team, and in your dimension there never was a female Black Ranger. Vesper was the only one in her dimension, and then another had one as well, but… she did not survive much longer after she became a Ranger, so pulling her from such a small timeframe would be very risky. And there has only been a female Green Ranger in Vesper’s dimension, but we weren’t expecting to have a sixth member. For whatever reason, the Grid chose you all because it found you worthy and compatible with this team.”

They all take a moment to let that set in.

“Can we backtrack to the ‘did not survive’ thing?” Tori asks, and Aisha nods.

“Are you saying this girl died? Because she was a Ranger?”

Alpha looks hesitant to continue—if it’s possible for a robot to look hesitant—but answers anyway. “The Zordon of her time was in charge of the new team in 1969. But he failed in training them properly. She was the Black Ranger for a short amount of time before being crushed by a boulder.”

They all had known how serious being a Ranger could be. How dangerous it was. But hearing a story like that seems to be reminding them of what they might be getting themselves into _here._ In this dimension.

“ _What the fuck_?” someone says, but it’s quiet, and Lauren hadn’t been paying attention to all of them individually to tell who it was.

Gia turns back to Kira, gesturing between them. “Switch the colors back.”

“No way.” Kira shakes her head. “You’re way more goth than I am.”

“First of all, I’m _not_ goth. Second, fuck off. The Black Ranger sounds cursed.”

“Exactly. Why the hell would I want to switch with you then?”

Gia shrugs. “You look like you’re into that stuff.”

“ _No_.”

“No one is cursed,” Lauren says, finally speaking up. Before now she didn’t have much to say. Nothing that would have helped or been beneficial to the conversation. But if she is the leader of this team, she might need to get used to diffusing situations like this. “The other Black Ranger was perfectly okay. You’ll be fine.”

“How exactly did the boulder get her?” Emma asks. “Was it just an accident?”

Alpha doesn’t respond right away. He looks up at Zordon, but the big guy in the wall seems to be in a state of fading in and out. “No… it was Psycho Green who threw it on her.”

That makes everyone turn to Kira. It’s just because of the association to the color, but… it still doesn’t look too good.

“I’m sensing some bad energy from this budding teammate tension…” Tori says carefully, looking back and forth at their designated Black and Green Rangers.

“ _Psycho_ Green?” Aisha puts a hand on her forehead. “This is so confusing…”

“Please don’t freak out!” Alpha quickly adds. “Psycho Green came from Dark Specter! He was not a Ranger!”

“I still don’t know what any of that means, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“But, well, in our time there _was_ actually—”

“Alpha you don’t need to mention—!” Zordon cuts in for a moment, keeping Alpha from saying any more.

But they still heard what was _almost_ said. That’s enough to keep them curious.

Gia shakes her head, staring Alpha down. “No, what were you going to say?”

“Well. The evil being that you have to fight was the Green Ranger on Zordon’s team.”

“I changed my mind,” Gia says, pointing over at Kira. “You can keep green.”

She doesn’t seem to have a response to that, so Gia continues, this time directing her words at Alpha.

“One other thing. If there have been at least seventeen other teams before me, and you already have Emma, why are we both here when we’re from the same team? No one else has their other members.”

“Oh. Like I said before, _we_ didn’t choose you; the Grid did. But you two must have a very strong bond if it kept you together!” As Alpha pauses, the two girls glance at each other. “The Grid must have recognized that and found it beneficial to team composition!”

Neither of them say anything after that. But Kira, mostly to herself but still loud enough for the others to hear, mutters, “ _Strong bond_ , huh?”

Gia ignores that to say, “Looks like _the Grid_ has a thing for blondes.”

Four out of six. Those are some strange odds.

“Why an all female team?” Lauren asks.

“He said we needed to be strong and capable; clearly only an all girl team could achieve that.”

Alpha shakes his head. “That might be part of the reason. But I’m sorry; I don’t know.”

It wasn’t a very important question, so not having an answer is fine. Lauren easily moves on to something else. “What’s the threat to the crystal?”

“Ah,” Zordon says. “Rita Repulsa.”

Aisha shakes her head. “I’m getting some serious deja vu… In this time… dimension… thing, Rita was a Ranger? On _Zordon’s_ team? But she’s still evil.”

“Exactly!” Alpha nods enthusiastically. “But she is different than what you knew her as. Much… worse.”

“ _Worse_?”

“I’m afraid so,” Zordon chimes in again. “Rita will create Goldar, a huge monster who will rip the Zeo Crystal from the Earth, and all life on this planet will die. Rita… was my friend. But she betrayed us. Wanted more power. She lost her way. Now she is just pure evil. She is the reason why my team is dead. Why I’m _stuck_ in this wall. You _have_ to stop her.”

At that point everyone begins to talk all at once. There are different phrases thrown around, but it’s all overlapping to where they can’t fully tell who’s saying what.

“So we don’t know _where_ this crystal is?”

“Repulsa? Why are these villain names always so dumb.”

“Someone else wants to destroy the world; what’s new?”

“If we deal with her, do we get sent back to where we belong?”

“ _When_ we belong? Are we even from the same time?”

“Is she here yet?”

“ _Enough._ ” Zordon’s voice booms throughout the room, effectively silencing everyone. Then he turns his attention to Lauren who had asked the last question. “You have time to prepare and assimilate into this community. But she will be here soon enough.”

Kira glances at the others, all seeming to share her curiosity, before saying, “What do you mean by _assimilate into this community_?”

“You will resume your lives as you normally would, but now from Angel Grove.”

“What does that mean? _Where_ are we supposed to be living?”

“Here in the ship!” Alpha calls out.

That leads to Gia crossing her arms and saying, “Right, because spending all of our time down _here_ is the key to becoming a part of this town.”

“Oh, no,” Zordon says. “Arrangements have been made for you on the surface as well.”

They don’t have to wait much longer for someone to elaborate. The confusion and questioning that’s bound to happen any second must be pretty present in their expressions, because Alpha dives right into spelling everything out for them.

“You’ll be going to Angel Grove High. Education is not the goal here, but we needed you to connect with this dimensions future Rangers. If they find the Coins before Rita gets here, knowing you should help them transition better. You have each been paired with one of them in a ‘buddy program’ where they will help you get used to the school and this new environment.”

“But you said they don’t have their coins yet, so they don’t know that they’re Rangers. That means they don’t know about us either.” Lauren says it as a statement, but also tries to leave it open for confirmation.

She gets it when Alpha says, “Exactly!”

So that’s definitely going to make things a little more complicated.

“Also! We need someone outside of the school to keep an eye on the town and cover more than one area at a time. Just in case. So, Lauren, although you could pass as a student as well, you are the oldest by a year or so, and have already finished with your studies. You will have a job at the local Krispy Kreme!”

Lauren nods. “Okay. I don’t mean to be difficult, but can I ask why? Why there? Why give me a job at all? If the goal is to keep this town _safe…_ ”

“One of the future Rangers works there too. You’ll have a different view of the town while also bonding! It allows you to be undercover and see the whole town--and have something to do while the others are in school.”

She still doesn’t fully understand it. But she doesn’t need to. She’s needed here, and that’s enough for her to stay and stick this out. “Okay.”

From the other side of the circle, Tori leans against her platform with a slightly disappointed look on her face. “Aw, dude. I was only two months away from graduating. Why couldn’t you take _me_ , but two months later?”

If it’s possible for a robot to sigh, that’s exactly what Alpha does in response to Tori’s statement. “We don’t choose at what point you were taken. Like I’ve said before, we don’t even choose _you_. And you don’t have to focus on academic aspects. As long as you’re blending in and keeping a connection to your Rangers.”

She still doesn’t look all that thrilled about the situation.

“Now that we know who you are, we need to take the night to finalize the arrangements up there,” Alpha continues. “So you can take this time to get settled in. Look around the ship--maybe even start training! As long as you’re bonding as a team. That is _very important_.”

“Hold on; we don’t have any of our belongings on us,” Tori says. “As much as I _love_ the water, I don’t really want to be stuck in this wetsuit for longer than I need to. If we’re going to be living _here_ …”

“Oh, we’re going to put together basic necessities for you. That’s a part of what we’ll be doing for the remainder of the afternoon. Don’t worry about it; we’ll take care of everything. All you need to worry about is being the best Rangers you can be!”

Gia raises her eyebrows at that. “Oh, that’s all?”

“So we just get uprooted from our lives to do this?” Kira asks. “How long will this take?”

“We don’t know…” Alpha says. “But we assure you your help is greatly needed in this town. And no one from your homes will even know that you left; once Rita is defeated, you’ll be returned back to the exact moment you were summoned here.”

Then that’s it. They’re a team now; they have a responsibility to commit to this. To keeping Angel Grove, and the world, safe.

“I’ll do whatever I have to in order to fulfill my duty as a Power Ranger. I’m needed here, so you have me,” Lauren says, and then glances around at the others. “Do I have a team behind me?”

There’s a stretch of silence that fills the room as the remaining five girls take their time before answering. And then, one by one they each say _yes_ in their own ways. Aisha and Emma just want to help keep these people safe, and apparently wherever Emma goes Gia’s ready to follow without question. Tori says she’s in as long as she can change into some different clothes. But Kira… Kira’s the most reluctant to go along with it.

She looks back and forth at Alpha and Zordon, agitation clear on her face. “Can I refuse? What if I just want to go back home?”

“Well… if you’d like to find your own way, you’re more than welcome to. But the Grid won’t send you back until the town is safe again. I’m sorry, we can’t control what it does or doesn’t do.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Hey, no offense,” Gia says, directing her attention to Kira. “But I get the feeling you aren’t the next obvious choice to join this thing anyway. It sounds like this Grid thing just wants to send us a ‘ _fuck you’_ in the form of a person. I don’t think _you’re_ even supposed to be here.”

For a moment Kira just looks offended. She goes to respond, but then stops herself and pauses. “I think you’re right. I don’t know what I did to piss this thing off so much, but this is majorly messed up. What the _fuck_?”

Despite how vocal Kira has been about wanting to get out of here, she doesn’t have anything else to add to the conversation. Based on what Alpha said, it doesn’t look like any of them have much of a choice in this. Maybe there’s more to it. Maybe the Grid knows that Kira does want to stay and she’s just making a big deal out of wanting to leave, or maybe she’s being singled out for some reason. They don’t know. But there’s no use in dissecting the problem when it _probably_ won’t lead to any new outcome.

Alpha offers to show them to the bedroom area of the ship, and says that they’ll be free to explore and get to know each other afterwards.

As soon as they know they aren’t trapped on the platforms anymore--and everyone else starts moving--Lauren notices Gia and Emma hanging back slightly for a quick hug. They break out of it and keep moving to stay caught up with the group.

When they reach the designated hallway, Alpha begins by assigning them to the rooms.

Aisha cuts him off to say, “Do you need to assign them? Aren’t they all identical?”

“They are. But I need to know where each of you are staying so we can put your belongings in the right area,” Alpha says. “Let me know which one you want.”

There are only six of them, so it doesn’t _really_ matter what room they take. They get that settled quickly and break away from Alpha to do their own thing. That apparently means finding a lounging area to sit down and introduce themselves to each other.

The introductions don’t go beyond saying their names, mostly because none of them are sure of what they _should_ be saying. There aren’t exactly guidelines for inter-dimensional group bonding.

“We’re all from different years, right?” Aisha says. “Do we know what year it is _here_? Did Alpha or Zordon say something that I missed? Or do you think there’s something around the ship that might… tip us off?”

Lauren shakes her head. “Everything that we’ve seen down here is most likely alien tech. I don’t think we’ll see any noticeable differences until we’re on the surface.”

“We can ask them when they’re finished setting everything up” Emma offers, shrugging.

Aisha nods a bit, but pauses like something is crossing her mind. “This is going to take some adjusting no matter _when_ we are. Forget about if we’re in the past or future; we know for a fact that we’re in a completely different universe.”

“That’s true.”

“How different do you think it is?” Tori asks, but it doesn’t seem like it’s directed at anyone in particular. “What if they call colors by different names? Like, that’s the _only_ difference. How weird would that be?”

There’s a moment where all of them just stare at her, attempting to comprehend what she’s brought up. And then Gia breaks the silence.

“How high are you right now?”

Tori shrugs. “I’m not high; I’m trying to ease the tension.”

“Wouldn’t you rather the difference in this world be something dumb instead of something that actually matters?” Lauren says, as if she’s clarifying or rewording what Tori was suggesting. “I understand what you’re trying to say.”

“Thank you.” Tori looks back to Gia. “But I was being at least twenty-five percent serious with that question. You can’t tell me it wouldn’t trip you out if people were calling _blue_ some other color. Like _orange_ . Or maybe it’s something else completely. Maybe it’d be like, _‘my favorite color is goldfish.’_ ”

Gia only shakes her head in response. “I don’t know how to talk to you.”

“As weird as I’m sure that would be,” Aisha says. “Maybe we should try talking about how tomorrow is going to go. We’re meeting people who are supposed to be the next set of Rangers, right?”

“That’s what they said.” Emma nods. “But we don’t know who we’re… assigned to yet. I think that’s a part of the _arrangements_ Alpha was talking about.”

“Ignoring the specifics of whoever they are,” Gia says. “ _How_ are we supposed to talk to them? We aren’t here to focus on academics, but as far as these kids are concerned, that’s what we’re partnered up with them for. In Red’s case that’s work, but still. I don’t see how spending fifteen minutes discussing _Algebra and Trig_ , or _which doughnut is the most popular on Mondays_ , is going to help keep the world safe.”

Kira shakes her head. “How many kids do you know who would actually _want_ to talk about schoolwork when they aren’t forced to do it? I bet they’d be just as turned off by the idea as you are.”

“We don’t know these guys; they could all be huge nerds.”

“Okay, when I said we should talk about it, _this_ is not what I meant,” Aisha says, gesturing at the others around her.

Lauren glances at her, almost shaking her head. It’s subtle enough that they might not have noticed anything. “It’s probably the closest thing you’re gonna get until we know exactly who we’re dealing with.”

Tori holds a hand up, grabbing everyone’s attention. “By _who we’re dealing with_ , do you mean _these new kids_ , or _us_?”

She pauses for a moment, but then simply says, “The next potential set of Rangers.”

“Okay, just checking.”

Unfortunately, most of them don’t look too convinced by her answer. Not that that’s a bad thing; they _do_ need to understand each other as a team.

“Did you say you knew me earlier?” Tori asks as she turns to Kira.

Kira glances up, and then shrugs. “I knew you at some point. What year are you from?”

“2003.”

She nods, and then points at herself. “2004.”

“Whoa…”

“Wait, seriously?” Gia says. “I know that little guy said we were from different times, but hearing the gap between us out loud is…” She shakes her head.

“What year are you two from?”

“2013.” She pauses, then looks at Emma. “Wait, are _we_ from different times too? What’s the exact date for you?”

Emma doesn’t respond right away, probably caught off guard by the sudden question. But then she says, “Um… Early November 2013? Maybe the fifth?”

Relief covers her face. “Okay, yeah. That’s where I am too.”

“So I’m like already ten years older than you,” Tori says, smiling.

Lauren shakes her head. “That’s not how it works.”

“When are you from?”

“2012.”

“So you’re clearly only saying that because you know I’m older than you too,” Tori says in a playful tone, but Lauren doesn’t have much of a reaction.

She just shakes her head and says, “That’s not why I’m saying it.”

“So my year might really throw you off,” Aisha says.

Emma looks at her to ask, “When are you from?”

“Oh, just… 1995.”

Gia stares at her, eyes widening. “Holy shit.”

Tori only nods. “You look like you’re from the nineties.”

Considering that Alpha had said there were around sixteen other yellow rangers between Aisha and Gia, the eighteen year gap isn’t actually that surprising. Not if they had taken a second to think about it. (Lauren might’ve been the only one to have done that.)

“Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult…?”

“Just an observation.” Tori shrugs. Then she looks to Kira. “So what am I like in a year from now? Do I look different? Am I still hanging with my Ranger Gang?”

Kira goes to say something, but stops herself. “Isn’t it the first rule of time travel not to disrupt timelines too much? I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you anything about your future self.”

“Does that rule still apply in this situation?” Aisha asks.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to accidentally screw up my life back home. I didn’t even know you for very long, Tori. It was just a few days, and our whole team interaction was complicated.”

“So I _am_ still with my team,” Tori says, triumphantly. “Cool. I’d miss those guys if I weren’t.”

“If we’re all from different years, do you think that might make bonding a little more complicated?”

Lauren shakes her head. “We have at least one thing in common; that’s all we need.”

“The biggest tragedy about this is going to be the disconnect in pop culture references,” Tori says sadly.

“Shit, that’s right.” Gia glances at both Emma and Lauren. “ _YouTube_ doesn’t even exist for any of them yet. If this place is in _our_ time, how are they supposed to function in a high school setting?”

“They have time travel and teleportation technology here, maybe they can… transfer information on modern culture into our heads?”

“That might be a stretch.”

“We could always spend time schooling each other in between training sessions,” Emma suggests. “If Alpha can get us the information… We could make flash cards.”

They all take a moment to think it over.

Aisha nods thoughtfully. “That might not be a bad idea.”

“Flash cards?” Kira mutters, slightly confused.

“What?” Gia raises her eyebrows at her. “Do you have something against flash cards?”

Emma shakes her head. “It was just an idea. It’s easier for some people to remember and learn things if they have a visual aid. You don’t _have_ to…”

“No, I’m just…” Kira says, cutting her off. “More of an auditory learner I guess.”

“Well, hey, we can make songs too.” Tori gestures towards her, and then pauses to sit up straighter. “So we somehow have this set to the tune of Beyoncé’s ‘Crazy in Love.’ The fifth _Harry Potter_ book just came out, _Friends_ is one season away from ending…”

Lauren sighs in response, while Aisha is _very_ confused. And Gia’s just… shocked.

“ _That’s_ what's happening in 2003?”

“Madonna and Britney Spears just kissed on screen at the VMA’s, but other than that… yeah pretty much.”

“Oh my god…”

Aisha tentatively raises her hand. “Okay I know about _Friends_ —and Madonna, obviously—but the rest I’m completely clueless about.”

“Shit, we don’t even have _Harry Potter_ to bond over. This might be weirder than I thought,” Tori says, shaking her head. “What year did _Harry Potter_ happen?”

“It was published in ‘97,” Emma says. “The first movie came out in 2001.”

“She doesn’t know about Beyoncé either,” Gia adds. “When did she become a thing?”

Emma reaches a hand into one of her pockets, but then pauses and shakes her head. “I can’t look it up, there’s no way I have WiFi down here. I don’t know.”

“Beyoncé is just now becoming a solo act for Tori, but Destiny's Child didn’t start making ground until ‘97 either,” Kira says. And then when she realizes they’re all staring at her, she adds, “What? I like music, okay?”

“If you were worried about disrupting timelines before, I think that ship has now sailed,” Lauren says.

Tori suddenly looks very excited. “Oh my god, we could give _Aisha_ the entire plot of _Harry Potter_ —because I assume by 2013 you’ve gotten however many books there are supposed to be—and she could write all the books _herself_ and become super rich. Think about it; she goes back to 1995 and releases the first book a year before JK can get her act together, and then—”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Emma says, looking genuinely worried that this could be a possibility.

Lauren shakes her head. “It’s not. It’s a terrible idea. Not only would that be potentially _very_ damaging to all of our timelines, but it’s also _not what we’re here for_.”

“But they could do some good for the world too.” Gia looks at Lauren. “These three might be the only hope of preventing something like _Fifty Shades_ from becoming a thing. Would that not make the world a better place?”

There’s a moment before she responds. “I don’t know what that is.”

“What? But that book just came out, like… two years ago. In 2011. And then it, unfortunately, blew up.”

She shakes her head. “I spent most of my life under the radar, training. I don’t have knowledge of pop culture like you do either.”

“This is giving me a headache.”

“Yeah, I vote we stop talking about pop culture and worry about that tomorrow. Sound good?” Kira says.

Everyone agrees, deciding that it might be better if they take this time to rest. Starting tomorrow, they’ll have a lot on their plates. They’ll need the energy.

“So wait a second,” Aisha says before they go their separate ways. “Are you telling me _Friends_ is going to last for _ten seasons_?”

There are a couple of audible groans and sighs, but Tori does respond to confirm that, _yes_ , that is what's supposed to happen. Aisha seems otherwise content enough to continue back to her designated room. For now.

 

\---

 

The next morning Alpha provides them with a sort of packet--it only has a couple of pages, so it isn’t really a _packet_ \--so they’ll have some information on the kids they’re going to be meeting. (Unfortunately they haven’t gotten any answers about the pop culture thing yet.) Names, a basic description of _who_ they are. Basically whatever they provided in their _buddy program_ sign up forms. It isn’t much, but it’s enough that they feel as prepared as they’re going to get.

They don’t know who the colors are going to match up with yet either, so they had to randomly assign and hope for the best. Gia especially is not a fan of that; she takes one look at _Kimberly Hart’s_ mini bio with the attached picture and shakes her head, saying, _“I can tell you right now that this girl is your Pink Ranger. You should let us pick; this Grid connection might actually let us know who we’re supposed to be mirroring.”_

Much to her disappointment, Zordon basically says she’s not in charge around here so she’ll have to suck it up. [Emma _might_ have to hold Gia back from attempting to punch the wall.]

Aisha needs to take an extra five minutes to adjust. A couple of these people have the same names as two of her _best friends_ from her dimension. And she knew of the other three--at least, the 1995 versions of them--but didn’t _know them_. It’s going to take a while for her to get used to the little details like that.

But they do manage to get themselves ready and head out for Angel Grove High, leaving Lauren behind to spend her morning training. [She didn’t _say_ that’s what she’d be doing, but it seems like a safe assumption.]

The group ends up waiting outside of the main office for their buddies to show up. Billy’s the first one to approach, stopping at their huddled group excitedly waving as he begins to introduce himself.

“Hi, I’m Billy. Billy Cranston. Or William Cranston. Kids used to call me Billy _‘Cramstons’_ as a 3rd grade joke like ‘ _Billy crams a ton of crayons in his butt,_ ’ --which I didn't! It's really impossible to cram a ton of crayons in a butt. Uh, no, wait, I'm sorry--”

“Hi,” Emma says, smiling. “You’re a part of the buddy program, right? Are you looking for…?”

“Oh, yes. I am. A part of the program, and looking for someone. Is one of you Kira Ford? Because,” He pauses to point at his backpack. “I have a paper that says Kira Ford is my designated buddy. And I remember pretty much everything, so I don’t have the name wrong. If none of you is Kira, then I should get going to find her before class starts.”

Kira takes a step forward, holding a hand up. “No, that’s me. I’m right here.”

“Okay, good. We should still get going, though. Before I help you find your first class, I thought I should show you where my locker is in case you need to ask me something and can’t find me anywhere else. Also, if you haven’t had breakfast I can show you to the cafeteria--but…” He glances at his watch. “They probably aren’t serving breakfast anymore, so I could show you to one of the vending machines instead.”

“I’m not hungry, but… thanks,” she says, moving to follow him as he abruptly turns and starts walking away.

“Okay, that’s fine. I wanted to be sure because my mom says it’s polite to ask, and I don’t know you so you might not eat breakfast regularly every morning. But…”

“I’ll see you guys later I guess?” Kira calls out before she disappears down the hall with Billy.

After a moment, Tori says, “I know they said it was random, but do you think they actually specifically chose who we’re partnered up with? Like, they _wanted_ there to be clashing or meshing personalities?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Gia says, shaking her head.

“Hey is anyone else… _way_ stronger than you remember?” Aisha glances around their little group.

“What do you mean?” Tori asks. “Because I think maybe yes, but also I don’t really know…”

As Aisha begins to respond, she’s interrupted by another person coming up to them.

It’s Jason, holding onto his backpack as it hangs off of one shoulder. “Uh, hey. Is one of you Aisha Campbell?”

Aisha nods, smiling. “That’s me.”

“I’m Jason. Your… buddy. I guess I can show you to your class, and… if you have any other questions then I can answer those. Probably. I don’t really know how this works.”

“That’s fine. I’m new to this too,” she says, taking a step forward to indicate that she’s ready to leave. “We can just start with the class for now.”

“Alright.” He turns, but pauses to wave at the other three girls. “Bye. It was nice to… kind of meet you.”

Emma waves back and Tori salutes, but Gia doesn’t do anything but stare as the two of them leave.

They’ve already been waiting for a while, so it’s getting closer to when the first bell is supposed to ring. That means more people passing by them, moving through the halls to get where they need to go. It isn’t crowded, though, and there aren’t too many people who notice or pay them much attention. And they aren’t in danger of being late _just_ yet. There’s still a bit of wiggle room.

“If our buddies don’t show up, does that mean we get a pass to skip classes today?” Tori asks, taking a step or so back to lean up against the wall.

“Wall Face and Robo-5 didn’t say we _couldn’t_ skip,” Gia says, and Tori nods enthusiastically.

“Right? And the entire reason we’re here is to _bond_ with these guys. Without them, there really isn’t anything else for us to do.”

Emma only shakes her head. “They’re going to show up. You two are just impatient.”

As if on cue, they see Kimberly approaching from down the hall. She heads straight for them--probably because they’re the only people standing in one spot right next to the main office--slowing down before she completely reaches them.

“Hey, would you happen to be in the transfer student, buddy program… thing?” she says once she’s close enough. After getting confirmation with a nod, she continues while checking something on her phone. “I’m looking for, uh… Gia.”

“Yeah, you found her,” Gia says, throwing a glance back at Tori. “ _You_ jinxed us.”

“Nope.” Tori shakes her head and then points at Emma. “She spoke it into existence. Her endless positivity is _clearly_ supernatural.”

“Uh huh.” She gestures out at the hallway. “Alright, lead the way.”

Kimberly nods, turning to set out in a different direction.

“We’ll meet up again at lunch,” Emma says. “You can survive until then.”

“Hopefully.” Gia waves before turning completely to keep following her new _buddy_.

Before either of the remaining two can say anything else, Trini’s suddenly there having quickly made a beeline for them as soon as Kim and Gia were gone. She’s already beginning to say something, but Tori cuts her off.

“Were you purposely waiting for that girl to leave?”

Trini blinks. “What?”

“I saw you standing over there,” Tori says, pointing off to indicate the direction. “Like you stopped when she approached us, and now you’re here because she left. I’m just saying—”

“Are you Emma?”

Tori shakes her head.

“Good.” Trini looks at the actual Emma—who nods to confirm that she’s who Trini’s looking for—and says, “Show me your schedule and I can point you in the right directions.”

Emma nods, pulling a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. “Oh. Sure.”

Although they don’t actually ask for her name, she does gesture to herself and say, “Trini.” Just for clarification.

Emma holds the now open paper out, displaying her schedule. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Uh… Likewise…” Trini glances over the schedule and then nods. “Just… follow me.”

Emma follows after her as she leaves—Trini specifically not acknowledging Tori--glancing back just to say, “I’ll see you at lunch too.”

“Wait, but what if he really doesn’t show?”

“He _will_.”

“That’s not…” she starts to say, but Emma’s already gone.

So then it’s just her.

And she wasn’t really serious about thinking no one would show up--at least, not at first--but now the hallway is _really_ starting to thin out. If her buddy is going to show up, then he’s cutting it pretty close. So much so that she’s pretty sure someone’s going to come by and tell her to get to class on her own if she doesn’t move soon.

She waits another minute, and then very slowly starts walking away down the hall. She doesn’t know where she’s going, and she’s kind of too lazy to pull her schedule out and match up room numbers, so she’s just… going.

“Well… I guess I’m just gonna go…” she says to literally no one. The hallway is now completely empty where she is, and she’s moving so slowly and dramatically that it’s almost comical. “My buddy’s not here… I’m just… devastated that I don’t get to experience another first day of school…”

Just as she lets out an over exaggerated sigh, she hears a loud noise echoing through the hall. A noise that sounds a lot like someone running.

The source rounds the corner at the end of the hallway, and then continues to run towards her. She stops moving, waiting until the guy reaches her, and sure enough it _is_ Zack Taylor.

He holds his hands out, barely pausing to catch a breath, and says, “ _Please_ tell me you’re Tori.”

“Yep.”

“Oh, thank god.” He actually does pause to breath this time. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I’m your guy. The dude friend. Pal. Thing.”

“My buddy?”

“Yeah that.”

So maybe she’s a _little_ disappointed that she doesn’t get to skip class. But Zack seems like a fun guy. So this interaction alone makes up for it.

“I am late, right? Has the bell rung?”

She goes to shake her head, but it’s that exact moment that the bell _does_ ring. “Well, we’re late now. But it’s no big deal, dude. Don’t sweat it.”

“Yeah, but…” He shakes his head. “We should still go. You won’t be _that_ late, and it was my fault anyway. You won’t be in trouble, but I don’t wanna push our luck.”

“Fine by me.” She shrugs. “Let’s do this.”

“Alright, uh…” He looks up and then back and forth down each end of the hallway. Then he points back the way he came from. “This way.”

Tori knows that she shouldn’t mess with him, but… She’s kind of wondering how long they can go before he realizes that he hasn’t seen her schedule yet.

[The answer is three entire minutes. Thankfully, he’s a good sport about it.]

 

\---

 

Aisha finds Jason sitting at a table by himself when lunchtime finally rolls around. And as soon as she takes a seat he’s already telling her that “sitting with him might kill her social life.”

She easily shrugs that comment off, saying, “I don’t need any of them. You’re my designated buddy. Unless you don’t _want_ me to sit with you, because if that’s the case, I’ll go.”

Jason shakes his head. “I’m not gonna kick you out or anything.”

“Okay.” She smiles. “Oh, but I actually have some friends that are supposed to join me, so if you don’t want a _lot_ of company I can…”

“Is it those other girls from the… transfer program?”

“Yeah.”

He shrugs. “Fine by me.”

It isn’t much later that Kira shows up, waving at Billy across the room before she takes the empty seat next to Aisha. She looks a little confused to see Jason there, but doesn’t immediately say anything about it.

“Billy didn’t want to sit with us?” Aisha asks, and Kira shakes her head.

“He said he had his own seat.”

“Alright, well, I know you didn’t see him earlier, but this is my buddy, Jason. And Jason, this is Kira. She’s from the program too.”

Kira waves while Jason mutters a, _“Hey.”_

“Have you seen any of the other girls yet?”

“Not recently,” Kira says. But then something catches her eye from across the room and she has to add, “But, uh… Tori and Emma are right over there.”

The other two girls seem to spot them just as quickly, changing directions to head towards their table. Zack tags along halfway there, saying something inaudible to Tori who nods in response. The three of them reach the table at the same time; Emma and Tori taking two spots next to Jason, and Zack swinging around to sit next to Kira.

They go through another handful of introductions.

Then Emma seems to notice that they’re short at least one member of their group, looking at the others to say, “Have any of you seen Gia recently? I haven’t seen her since third period.”

After hearing three different forms of the word _no_ , she looks down at her food no less confused than she had been before.

“Wait, you don’t think she actually ended up skipping, do you?” Tori asks, but Emma shakes her head pretty quickly.

“No, she would’ve told me.”

She doesn’t look totally convinced. “Are you sure? Because you were pretty against the idea this morning.”

“I wouldn’t have liked it, but she wouldn’t just ditch without saying something.”

It takes a couple of minutes, but Gia does show up. She gets to the table, half out of breath, and takes a moment to look over everyone. Then she waves a hand at Tori and says, “Hey. Move.”

Tori looks down at herself, and then back up. “What? Me?”

She nods, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “Please.”

Tori doesn’t move right away. She spends a full second staring at the empty seat _next_ to her right where Gia’s sort of hovering. But then she looks to her other side and sees Emma--who already looks apologetic--and it hits her _why_ she should move. “Oh, right. My bad.”

As she hops up and shuffles around to the other side--Zack actually moves down a seat so Tori can be between him and Kira--Gia takes the now empty spot and finally takes a minute to catch her breath.

“Where were you, dude?”

“My Science class is on the other side of campus in an _outside classroom_ ,” Gia says, pausing to lean against Emma’s side. “Who the hell puts a completely separate class out there? What’s the point?”

After a moment of silence, Zack says, “So you guys are getting used to this place then?”

“ _Sure_.”

“It’s only day one,” Aisha says. “I’m sure we’ll adjust in no time.”

Emma nods, grabbing for her water bottle. “We haven’t even been here for a full twenty-four hours yet. It can’t be _that_ \--”

She doesn’t get cut off by someone else trying to talk. It’s just that as she’s trying to twist open her bottle, she sort of crushes the cap in her hand and causes a good bit of water to overflow and splash out onto the table. It isn’t too disruptive--most of the bottle is still full--but it’s enough to make everyone pause in confusion.

Being so close to it, Gia reflexively flinches back so fast that she barely manages to grabs onto the table and keep from falling to the floor.

“I’ll…” Emma starts to say as she gets up from the table. “I’ll get some napkins…?”

As she turns to leave, Zack glances around at the group. “Is that normal?”

Tori shrugs. “I don’t think so?”

“Defective bottle,” Gia says simply, but her attention is elsewhere. She’s looking back at the condiment station--where the napkins also live--and then at the slightly broken water bottle still sitting on the table.

A defective bottle seems to make enough sense for Zack and Jason, but the girls are seriously starting to question how their strength is a little bit… more intense than they remember. Just two class periods ago, Kira had spotted Aisha in the hallway and very casually mentioned that she had just accidentally broken a desk. She was leaning forward against it, mostly daydreaming, and then the table part just… broke. Thankfully the desks here aren’t in the best shape anyway and the teacher wasn’t fazed by the sudden disruption. But it is a good reminder that they might want to be more conscious of what they’re doing from now on.

It doesn’t take Emma very long to clean up the spill, but even afterwards she’s still in a vaguely confused state.

“So,” Zack says, clapping his hands together. “It’s been half a day. Any gossip about your buddies yet?”

“We haven’t even known each other for more than five minutes,” Kira says. “What kind of _gossip_ are we supposed to have?”

“Okay, fine. Initial impressions. Go.” He looks at Tori first.

She pauses, halfway in the middle of pouring the last of a bag of chips into her mouth. Despite the fact that she’s clearly busy, Zack doesn’t look away or tag someone else in for her. So she has to down whatever’s left, take a little more time to grab a sip of her drink, and _then_ she clears her throat to say, “You’re cool.”

“That’s all?” He raises his eyebrows at her, mock offended.

“Yeah? I don’t know. You weren’t upset when I purposely didn’t tell you my room number, and you’ve been apologizing for being late, like, every five minutes. So. You’re chill, dude.”

He gives a slight nod, seemingly content with that as an answer. “Alright, I accept that… Okay, _you_. What was your name? Kira?”

Kira nods, but she doesn’t look much more prepared than Tori had been. “My guy was nice? Very prepared. Very helpful. Probably the definition of what this buddy program was looking for.”

“Boom. Next.”

Aisha blinks at the sudden chang, and then turns to Jason. “Oh, um. I think you’ve been doing exactly what you’ve needed to do.”

“Thanks.” Jason nods, not too concerned with the topic of conversation. He seems to be content with keeping to himself through this lunch.

“Uh…” Zack turns to the next person. “Emma?”

“Trini was mostly quiet,” Emma says. “But she did show me where I needed to go, and that’s all she was technically supposed to do. She’s eating back there by herself, but don’t all look at--”

Just as she’s saying it, most of the table turns at the exact same time to get a good look at Trini. And they do see her sitting by herself, wearing headphones and blocking out the rest of the room.

“I was going to say _don’t everyone look at once_ , but… nevermind.”

Gia shakes her head, pointing off in Trini’s direction. “I doubt she’d notice anything unless you physically take those things off her head. We’re fine.”

“Whoa, Crazy Girl!” Zack turns back to the group with a big grin on his face. “You said her name’s… Deedee?”

“Trini,” Emma clarifies.

“Trini. Cool.” He waves off in a random direction. “I see her all the time over by the mountains. She’s always doing yoga stuff down there.”

“So you’re by the mountains a lot?”

Zack nods. “I live close by. And it’s a pretty fun area to hang out in; as long as you steer clear of the restricted area. Or, well… _that_ could be fun too…”

There’s a very suspicious look on Tori’s face as he says that, and she slowly sets her drink back on the table before saying, “How _restricted_ is this restricted area?”

“No.” Aisha shakes her head, leaning forward to pointedly look at Tori. “Do _not_ go near the restricted area. If it’s in the _mining_ spot by the mountains, then there’s probably all kinds of dangerous equipment lying around. Maybe even explosives.”

Her eyes widen, but it’s in excitement instead of fear. So that’s a little disheartening. “Oh my god, do you think? They’d just leave that out in the open?”

“That… was not supposed to make this more appealing.”

“Yo, we can talk about this later,” Zack stage whispers to Tori, and then at a normal volume says, “But we’ve got one last buddy to talk about. So…”

Gia looks a bit skeptical at the subject of her buddy, taking a moment to think before she lands on what to say. “She didn’t do anything bitchy for the whole two minutes I was with her, but I get a weird vibe. There’s something off with her.”

“Is that not how you feel about most people?” Kira says, eyes cast down at her food instead of at Gia. So she doesn’t see what reaction that statement elicits.

There’s a death glare directed at her, and then Emma throwing Gia a look that basically says, _do_ not _start a fight in the middle of the cafeteria_ . That only makes her a _little_ more hesitant than she had been. So Emma takes a moment to whisper something to her that the others can’t hear, and that seems to be enough to placate her. For now.

“What kind of a weird vibe?” Aisha asks, hoping to diffuse some of the tension at the table.

Gia shrugs. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to describe a _feeling_ to you. It was just _off_.”

“You? Having trouble communicating an emotion?” Kira says, and she actually does make eye contact this time. “Shocking.”

“What the hell is your problem?”

“You just make it so easy.”

“And _you’re_ being an instigator,” Aisha says. “Cut it out. We’re all already on edge because it’s our first day. We don’t need a fist fight to make it worse.”

Kira puts her hands up defensively. “Don’t worry. I’m done.”

She doesn’t really believe that, but it’ll work for now.

“So this vibe that you’re getting from Kim,” Tori says. “Is it a _bad_ weird, or a _good_ weird?”

“I… don’t know.” Gia still looks on edge, so maybe they shouldn’t be questioning her anymore. It might be best to move on.

“Kim… berly Hart?” Jason says, causing everyone to look a bit surprised at his sudden conversational participation. When he gets a nod in response, he raises his eyebrows at them. “Oh.”

There’s the same expression Zack’s face as there is on Jason’s, and that makes this situation twenty times more interesting than it was before. “What does _oh_ mean?”

“She’s got a bit of a rep around here.”

He doesn’t elaborate.

Tori snaps her fingers a couple of times. “Come on guys; give us the details.”

“It’s just… complicated.”

“Alright, I’ll take this.” Zack pats himself on the chest. “With what little I actually know about this school… Kim was like _the_ cheerleader. Miss Popular. But something happened internally. That popular jock-y prep clique was combusting. There were dozens of stories circulating around school with what was happening; some _seriously_ messed up. But the truth still hasn’t come to light…”

“She punched her boyfriend—now _ex_ —in the face and it knocked his tooth out,” Jason adds.

“I heard they put it back, though.”

“Yeah, they put it back.”

“Right. So, anyway. She got kicked off the cheer team and I think she’s becoming a social outcast now? I dunno.”

Aisha stares at him, eyes wide “She _punched his tooth out_?”

“Yeah. Crazy, right?”

What’s crazy is how _all_ of their Ranger-to-be buddies seem to be outcasts in their own ways. This new information on Kim, Jason mentioning earlier that being seen with him is social suicide, Trini eating by herself in the very back of the cafeteria, and Zack having a spotty attendance record… They don’t know much about Billy, but he apparently has his own place to sit during lunch, so maybe not _all_ of them. That’s still TBD.

“Great.” Gia sighs. “I get the wild card.”

Zack gives her an unconvinced look. “You mean out of all of your buddies? I don’t know; I think I can be pretty wild too…”

The look that Gia’s giving him makes him pause and think about how that sounded. Then he quickly shakes his head.

“That came off as oddly sexual, but I swear I’m not hitting on you. Not that you’re not, like, attractive, because you are.” He becomes a bit more frantic the longer he goes on. “I mean, all of you girls are. Jason’s attractive too. I’m not trying to be… Am I making this worse? I’m making it worse.”

Tori pats him on the back. “Just… stop talking for a minute. Let it settle.”

Thankfully Gia isn’t glaring at him anymore. She actually looks kind of amused with the turn of events.

“That trainwreck aside,” Kira says. “Are you really the _wild one_ if you have to _tell_ people you’re the wild one?”

Zack takes a breath to recover, and shakes his head. “Well you’re clearly not the wild one of your group, so how would you know?”

“You don’t even _know_ us. But, fine. Who exactly do you think is _wild_ out of all of us?”

“The powers that be paired us together. Clearly.”

“Tori?”

After hearing her name, Tori nods in agreement.

“Okay, wait.” Aisha puts her hand up to grab their attention. “There’s a difference between being straight _wild_ , and being a wild _card_. She’s way too relaxed to be the former.”

“Fair,” Zack agrees. “That’s fine, I can agree with that. Nothing I do is straight anyway.”

Without even looking, Tori holds her hand out for a fist bump. Zack obliges, managing to hit her hand without looking either.

“Side note,” Tori says. “I get wild card vibes from Gia too.”

“Really? Mm… I’m not seeing it.”

“No, dude. I can tell. Emma’s obviously 100% of her impulse control. Separate them, there’s no telling what might happen.”

That sounds like it makes sense, but it might not be the best thing to test out. Not yet anyway. It’s only day _two_ of being in a new dimension.

But Aisha can’t even focus on how that’s a bad idea because she can’t help but notice that Kira’s kind of… staring at her hands. Or the food in her hands? “Do you want something?”

Kira doesn’t even look up as she says, “Is that ink?”

She does have ink on her hands. Which she forgot about. “Oh, yeah. It wouldn’t wash off completely…”

“...Why?”

“I broke my pen in half. And two pencils, but that was less messy.”

Kira nods overdramatically. “Right, obviously.”

Aisha gives her a look in return. And even though the others are still distracted by their own conversation, she lowers her voice to say, “ _You_ broke a desk today.”

“Yeah, that was weird.” She also leans a bit closer. “What is up with this strength thing? Did they say we were supposed to be getting new powers on top of all of this?”

“I… don’t remember. There was a lot to process yesterday.”

“Understatement of the year. Or… dimension? God, I’m gonna give myself a headache trying to work that one out.”

Aisha glances up, double checking that Jason isn’t listening in. He isn’t talking to the others, and he doesn’t _look_ like he’s listening to the two of them. But that doesn’t mean he won’t overhear anything. Still, she turns back to Kira to continue. “We’re supposed to start training as soon as these classes end. We can just _ask_ in a few hours.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Kira says. “I don’t think I trust those alien robot guys. This whole thing feels sketchy.”

“It’s… definitely been surreal. But we don’t have any reason _not_ to trust them. I think we’ll be okay as long as we focus on keeping this world safe.”

“Oh. We’ll be okay as long as we keep an _entire planet_ from being destroyed. No pressure.” Kira shakes her head. “They’ve got time travel technology; if we fuck up, we’ll just press the redo button, yeah?”

Aisha stares at her, unamused. “Are you being sarcastic?”

“ _Yes I’m being sarcastic._ ”

She says it loud enough that Jason does actually look up for a moment. And Gia looks a little more interested in their conversation from across the table. But none of them say anything, so they should be okay.

Kira takes a moment before continuing, actually keeping her voice around a whisper this time. “I just… I don’t like this time travel and dimension hopping thing. And I don’t like that we can’t leave until this is done.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Aisha says. “It might take some time, but… we’re all in this together.”

She sighs. “Guess we don’t really have any other choice.”

There isn’t much time left in lunch, but then again, the lunch period overall is barely anything. At this point, they’re all pretty sure of where they need to be going, but half of them still pull out their schedules to double check.

Zack and Jason already being there makes things convenient for two of them. Plus, Billy isn’t too far away. Their table is waiting for the giant crowd to mostly disperse before attempting to leave.

“Hey, we have the same next class!” Emma smiles, looking up from her schedule to link arms with Gia. She waves at the others--which is mostly just her waving her schedule in the air--before turning back and pulling Gia along with her to the nearest exit.

As soon as they’re gone, Kira turns to the other remaining members of their group and points off towards the exit.

“Okay, we have got to talk about _that_ later.” She shakes her head. “ _Strong bond_ , my ass...”

 

\---

 

All of their buddies--except for Trini--check in with them at the end of the day to see if they need any help with navigating the town. The fine print of the buddy program is that they have to _help these new students adjust to life in Angel Grove_. But they say that, although they appreciate the offer, they won’t need any help for today.

The tricky part of the day is remembering how to get back to their base. Which they manage to do, but not without a bit of arguing here and there. It was a whole thing, but they found the right area, and they’re ready to get back to the ship, and then they’re realizing that there’s another obstacle in their way.

Alpha had teleported them up to the surface this morning, and that was that. But now they have no idea how to get back _down_ there. No way to contact Alpha, Zordon, _or_ Lauren.

Tori’s investigating the area, trying to pinpoint the spot they started in this morning, and then looking for something that might be an entrance. Aisha and Emma are helping, but Gia’s strategy is to find a nice rock to just sit on and wait. They’ll have to realize that they’re up here eventually, so there’s no use wasting their energy.

Kira has no idea what the hell she’s doing, but… she’s there. She would join Gia--everyone’s left their backpacks on the same rock, so it doesn’t look like an uncomfortable area--but she waits too long to make up her mind.

“Guys, I think I found a way down!” Tori calls out.

It takes a moment for everyone to find her because they had spread out to cover more ground. But they end up near a cliff, spotting Tori right at the edge. She’s lying on her stomach, peering down into whatever void exists at the bottom of this thing.

“Oh, _hell_ no.” Gia’s already taking a couple of steps back even though she’s nowhere near the edge.

“This is your way down?” Aisha asks, and Tori nods, pushing herself up to stand again.

“There’s water at the bottom.”

Emma glances at the cliff uneasily. “Even if that’s true, how do we know it’ll lead to the ship? We might be stuck down _there_ next.”

“They’d find us eventually.” Tori shrugs. “But I have a good feeling about this. Like, a _Ranger sense_. Trust me.”

“But you don’t know how shallow the water is either. You could seriously get hurt.”

Tori shakes her head. “Look, water is my _thing_. We’ll be fine down there.”

“Wait a second. Only one of us needs to go. If you find the ship, you can tell Alpha that we’re all waiting up on the surface and he can teleport us down,” Kira says. “It’s a win-win.”

“I don’t think _any_ of us should jump.” Aisha glances at each of them. “There has to be an easier solution to this.”

Tori holds her hands up, gesturing to emphasize her points. “Fine. You guys stay up here and find a boring way into the base. I’ll dive down there and do my thing. Kira’s plan doesn’t sound that bad to me. Cool? Cool.”

It still doesn’t seem like a good idea to two of them, but Tori’s already walking backwards. She doesn’t turn away or break eye contact, and right as she hits the drop off, she shoots up a couple of finger guns and falls back off the cliff.

“ _Tori_!”

They all rush forward to look over the edge, but their vision isn’t adjusting to the darkness at the bottom just yet. They can’t _see_ what happens to her. But they _do_ hear a splash.

“Are you okay?” Emma calls out, but it takes a moment before they get a response.

“Get down here, guys! The water’s great!”

Emma and Gia are both crouched down to stay more stable, but Kira’s just standing next to them. And Aisha backs up several steps as soon as she hears that Tori’s alive and well.

“She’s _actually_ insane.” Gia slowly stands up, hands on her hips.

“So we’re staying up here, right?” Kira says. “We aren’t following her down there?”

“Why? Do you not know how to swim?”

Kira shakes her head. “No, I can swim just fine. But I still don’t--”

So here’s the thing. For someone so adamant about not jumping off of this cliff, Kira _is_ standing _right at the edge_ . Like, she’s just asking for someone to push her and make this whole thing go by quicker. Also, she kind of pissed Gia off during lunch. So _of course_ Gia has to use one hand to just shove her into the void.

Emma sits there in shock for a few seconds, but quickly shakes herself out of it. “Gia, why would you… _Why_ would you do that?”

“I didn’t say anything at lunch. This was just a… delayed reaction.” She gestures towards the cavern. “She’s _fine_. She said she can swim.”

“But that doesn’t mean you can just _push_ someone off a _cliff_. This isn’t the same as playfully shoving someone into a swimming pool. She didn’t even see it coming.”

“I don’t think this is as big of a deal as you’re saying it is. The fall can’t be that bad.”

“Really?” Emma stands up. “Well, you’re about to find out for yourself.”

Gia looks back in confusion. “What is that supposed to… Wait. Em, _don’t_ \--”

“Give me _one_ reason why I shouldn’t.”

She doesn’t have an answer ready, and coming up with one off the top of her head isn’t working _at all_ . And she knows that if she waits too long, that’ll be like the equivalent to a _wrong answer_. “Because…”

“Nope.”

And Emma _tries_ to just push her over the cliff, but Gia’s quick enough to pull her into a semi-hug. And they’re both starting to fall before either can recover.

“Gia--”

“No, you’re coming with me.”

It’s more like they _trip_ off of the cliff rather than fall off. The fall itself is more or less terrifying, but hitting the water isn’t as bad as they were anticipating.

Things around them are oddly calm once they resurface.

“Thanks for joining us,” Tori says. She’s lying on her back, floating and drifting off to the side.

Gia lets out a frustrated sigh. “It wasn’t by choice, believe me.”

Kira shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who came down here _willingly_ , Tor. No offense.”

“Aw, you called me Tor. Is that like our thing? Do we have nicknames for each other in the future?” Tori pauses. “What am I supposed to call you? I don’t think you can shorten your name like mine.”

“What? No. I don’t know you _that_ well. We’ve only seen each other a couple of times.”

“So you just came up with that? Nice, we’re already bonding.”

Emma looks up vaguely in the direction where the cliff edge is. “Aisha! Are you going to wait up there?”

“Yes! Well, actually… Hold on, I’m going to try something. It probably won’t work.”

That’s more than a little ominous.

They don’t hear anything more from her, but that doesn’t mean much since they’re pretty far away from each other. They were basically yelling to communicate before. _But_ they also don’t have to wait very long to figure out what she was doing.

Apparently Aisha found a way to get teleported back down to the ship--without having to jump down with the others. And _they_ know that because it ends up teleporting them too.

So the upside is they’re all finally down where they need to be. The _downside_ is that the four in the water had no idea what was about to happen, so going from water to solid ground in less than a second doesn’t go the best. They fall to the floor immediately, barely having any time to process the change. Tori was even still floating on her back, so she hits the ground in the exact same position. Needless to say, it hurts.

“Oh my gosh, I’m _so_ sorry,” Aisha says, quickly holding her hands out to help each of them up. “I really didn’t think that would work.”

They still need to recover from that fall, but as soon as Gia’s up, she’s saying, “What did you do? And why didn’t we try that _before_ jumping off the cliff?”

“Rangers! You’re back!” Alpha calls out, appearing from the nearest entryway. It looks like they were teleported right outside of the main room--but whether or not that was on purpose is unclear.

“I…” Aisha shrugs as she helps Tori up. “I just said, _Alpha if you can hear me, can you teleport us down?_ And, I guess he heard me. Somehow.”

“Oh, no. I didn’t hear you.” Alpha points back into the room. “Lauren said you should’ve been back by now, so I tried to bring you back and it worked! And it only would have if you were within so many feet, so maybe she sensed that you were nearby.”

Then that timing might just be the weirdest coincidence they’ve experienced all day.

“Is that a thing now too?” Kira asks. “The new strength was weird, but now we can _sense_ each other? Which, by the way, sounds pretty creepy to me.”

“Why don’t you come back in here and we can get started with training, and morphing, and fun stuff like that?”

Kira shakes her head, even though they do follow Alpha back into the room. “I don’t think you understand our definition of _fun_.”

Lauren is standing with her arms crossed near her designated platform, closer to the matrix at the center. She looks up when they enter, nodding to acknowledge them rather than saying anything. Zordon is also present—it’s probably safe to assume that he’s actually going to be participating this time.

And he’s jumping right to it. Once the door is closed behind them, Zordon’s already starting up a speech about training and what they need to be ready for. _Morphing_ is a big point he makes sure to cover. The way it worked for each of them already differed person to person, but being in a completely new dimension changes that in a different way. Even their suits are going to look different.

Alpha interjects that he has presents for everyone, and then waddles off to the side to retrieve them.

“They’re your new morphers! We spent all day putting them together because the inter dimensional details can get tricky, but they should be good now. When you’re on the surface you can contact us down here whenever you want!” He quickly passes them out—although Lauren apparently already has hers—and then excitedly throws his arms out wide. “Tadaa! See, they’re designed to look like modern watches!”

Emma glances at the others as she puts her own on, and smiles. “And they’re color coded!”

“We’re going to look like such dorks at school now…” Kira fiddles with the morpher-watch, twisting it around a little.

“Now. If you could,” Zordon says. “Please stand on your platforms and try to morph.”

It sounds easy enough. So they take their places, a couple of them glancing at each other in confusion. Zordon said this would be different, but he didn’t really explain _how_.

Aisha looks a bit unsure of herself as she says, “It’s morphin’... time?”

“Ha?” Tori hesitantly holds her hand out in a closed fist.

After seeing that, Kira puts one hand over her watch and also says, “...ha?”

Nothing happens.

Emma looks down at Alpha. “Are we all supposed to be doing our morphing slogans…?”

“I’m going to feel really dumb if I have to start saying, _‘go go megaforce’_ without using the stupid Gosei morpher,” Gia says.

“You don’t have to use a slogan,” Zordon says. “Just channel the energy and _morph_.”

Kira drops her arms back to her sides. “Easier said than done.”

Wall Face sighs. “Just try it. We don’t have time to mess around when you should be training.”

It’s hard to tell if they’re actually doing what they should be, but either way it still doesn’t work. Normally they just have to yell something, hold out their morpher, and then they’ll be in the suit. Why change that?

“I was afraid of this…” Zordon says, exasperated. “You need to bond and become a team and the Grid will _grant_ _you_ your morph abilities.”

“It was never this complicated before,” Kira says, shaking her head.

“You need to realize that you’re no longer in your own dimension. There are going to be many differences that you’ll have to adjust to.” He pauses. “For _now,_ you will have to train without suits.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure we all have plenty of experience with that,” Lauren says.

Alpha puts his hand up. “Actually this is probably going to hurt a bit more than you’re used to. We have _The Pit_.”

Without a further explanation, Kira says, “Like a mosh pit?”

“Are you _trying_ to prove me right about the goth thing?” Gia asks.

“You don’t have to be goth to mosh.”

Honestly, she doesn’t even need to respond to that. It might just be the worst sentence she’s ever heard anyone say.

“Actually, I do have a question about this dimension thing,” Aisha says. “Do we have _powers_ here? Some of us have been feeling stronger than normal…”

Lauren glances at Alpha, a bit guilty for some reason. Alpha 5 nods and says, “Lauren also discovered more strength than she was accustomed to earlier today.”

That gets several of the others’ attention. Especially Tori’s. “What does _that_ mean?”

Lauren sighs. “We were training, and I accidentally--”

“She kicked my arm off!” Alpha exclaims, actually pausing to pull his left arm off and wave it in the air a little. “It was actually pretty cool. And it didn’t hurt at all ‘cause I’m a robot!”

“Uh, yeah it _sounds_ awesome,” Tori says.

“That’s a good question, Aisha.” Zordon suddenly says, regaining control of the conversation. “Yes, there will be some differences relating to your abilities. You would be stronger, more athletic, have increased skill in agility, and you should be more durable. Or, have an accelerated rate of healing. Whether or not all of that will manifest is unknown to us at this time.”

Aisha glances at Kira and Emma, given that they were the ones who had a bit of trouble earlier--the desk and water bottle--and nods. “Alright, thank you.”

Zordon nods. “If you would like to change into more appropriate apparel, do so. Then Alpha will take you to The Pit.”

The fact that they’re only referring to this place as a _pit_ is a little weird, and just _slightly_ scary. It isn’t enough to make them super paranoid, but it’s enough that they’re preparing themselves for almost anything.

They change into some pretty generic athletic wear while still matching their Ranger colors, and a tense moment passes where Alpha comments on a few members of the team and their “choice in footwear.” He just wanted to show them sneakers because _heeled shoes might not be the best for a first session_ . Being one of the Rangers he was addressing, Gia in particular is a little defensive. Saying she’s fought in her boots plenty of times before and she was _fine_. Alpha doesn’t have a response, so she relents by saying the shoes didn’t go with the work out clothes anyway.

Kira can’t stop looking down at her own clothes while they make their way to _The Pit_. There’s… no yellow. “I’m never going to get used to all this green…”

Alpha stops them at the next opening they reach. It doesn’t exactly lead to a _room_ , but it does lead to a wide open area just outside of the ship. There’s a lot of rock. Including a giant rock _monster_ that _has_ to be some kind of hologram. There’s no way it’s _real_.

Cheery as ever, Alpha throws his arms out wide and exclaims, “Welcome to _The Pit_!”

**Author's Note:**

> I promise the '17 Rangers make a bigger appearance soon
> 
> doughnutcleric is my tumblr if u wanna yell at me over there


End file.
